Fixes a Flat tire so you can drive on it, but the folks at all the Tire shops say not to use it (I can’t remember why I was told not to use it). Are they correct, or are they just trying to spread that notion so that people will use their towing service and buy tires at their shops?
Pick yourself up a radial tire plug kit at the car section of your local Walmart (or similar retailer) or at a automotive store. Then pick up a 12 volt air pump. The plug kit has all the tools and instructions (cost around $12) and the pump (cost around $20) can also be used for filling that air mattress you’ve got stashed away for that special moment. Fixes a dozen tires or so and impresses your friends and family with your knowledge of things automotive.
They can still fix it. I used the Fix on my tire when I drove over a nail. As long as you get it to the shop firstthing after you add it and let them know.
An idiot friend of mine used four cans on a slow leak in his tire before I told him that this was not Tire In A Can. By then there was way too much goo to repair it.
The goo can also clog the valves in some cases which can put you up a creek. My mom was in the habit of using the stuff on yard implement tires but ended up runing a bunch of tubes.
Explosive vapours from the propellant is the key concern with tire shops, but the newer fix-a-flat products supposedly have non-flammable propellants.
Those radial tire plugs work pretty well if the instructions are followed, but don’t trust them if you do sustained high speed driving, 75 mph +, especially in the summer.
Also, NEVER use them on motorcycles!
VB
Tempus is fugiting all over the place! Carpe that diem!
Yeah, the guy at the gas station one time told me to always tell them if I had used fix-a-flat because it was very flamable and could explode under certain conditions.
“Don’t do it man.”
Jeffery
I know, no additional info, but I had to add to the general opinion, no?
We just had a flat tire yesterday at the mall. It was late and about eight degrees, with three kids in the car. Hubbo was changing the tire, and I in usual form, was standing around bemoaning our lack of Fix-a-Flat. He started with his “Fix-a-Flat is evil” garbage and I discounted his knowledge. I sure won’t point this thread out to him.
My personal preference would be a plug (as FF mentioned above. If done carefully, this can be a permanent repair. (Mini rant: and you don’t have to trust some pimply, minimum-wage, auto-shop-reject,
doesn’t-know-which-machine-to-use,
teenager w/ your Keystone 15x10’s that aren’t made anymore. Thanks a LOT Eric.)
But if you don’t feel comfortable w/ that, my advice regarding Fix-a-flat:
As w/ any “quick and dirty” solution, sometimes it works. And when it does, Bonus.
BUT (as w/ any q+d) it should be re-done *correctly</> asap.
It’s a temporary/emergency fix only. If you take the tire in for repair the next day you should be fine. (PLEASE warn the tire guy though, that stuff IS flamable.)
It seems rather dangerous to advise people not to use fix-a-flat. Maybe it’s better for the tire not to use it, but your life is more important than a tire. Don’t hesitate to use fix-a-flat if there is any danger of getting hit by another car while trying to install a spare.
And, as has been said, do not drive on it for very long. Even if the ‘patch’ holds, the goo tends to settle (and gel) at the lowest point of the tire and the weight will radically imbalance your wheels, which could both damage your tire treads and cause a loss of control in emergencies.
Also, I learned after that to just use a regular pump. It’ll be able to keep air in it long enough for you to get it to someone who can patch it. You don’t need to spray anything in it at all. Just get a bike pump, pump it back up & it should be alright till you can find a patcher. Sometimes stupid kids like to take air out at night just for kicks.
In that case, it just needs some air. So carry a bike pump.
What could be just a $10 patch gets tripled because most shops charge a few to clean up the gunk - and I believe this to be the case whether it’s the flamable variety or not.
Nutshell? Don’ use it. More trouble thn it’s worth, unless you’re an old lady who cannot possibly change a tire for medical or logistic reasons. And those people should have AAA anyway…
I used it about three months ago on a tire that had a slow leak. According to the directions on the can it said not to use it unless you could drive the car like 25 miles right after you used it to keep it from settling. I had the guy at the auto store tell me the same thing…not to use it unless it was an emergency. Well I have to drive 32 miles one way to work…I got up one morning and the tire was once again slack. I popped the fix-a-flat on…filled the tire…and away I went. It has not leaked down since. But then again…I plan to replace my whole set of tires within the next 6 weeks or so. I wouldn’t use it on a fairly new tire.
I agree, except I find that most cheap 12 volt air pumps are crap. I carry a bike pump; I think that it cost me $8 and it always works - any low-priced one should be able to hit 35 lbs (ya also need an air gauge!). You also should carry a pair of (cheap) needle-nose pliers to pull out foreign objects, if you can reach them - it’s better than just pushing them into the tire. The tire plug method also has one GREAT advantage over the other way, and that is you don’t have to actually change the tire- you only have to be able to reach the hole with the plug tools. You avoid all the trouble with jacking the car up and getting the lug nuts off (which is the most difficult part, particularly with aluminum wheels). - MC
Today’s Fix-a-Flat is OK to use in a DIRE emergency. As a general tire-fixer-upper, it ain’t so good.
Mechanics used to hate the stuff because the company used propane as a propellant. Removing a tire from a standard steel rim involves a lot of contact between the rim and a steel tire tool, thus considerable potential for creating a spark… BOOM!!!
As I understand, the folks who make Fix-a-Flat use something inert for a propellant now. That still doesn’t solve the ‘gunk’ problem.
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
I’ve used it a few times. My tire folks (NTB) tell me it is not a problem at all, and it’s surely the quickest and easiest way to deal with a flat - just remember to drive the car immediately.
I used it on an old car of mine in the summer of '98, right before I gave the car to a friend of mine’s nephew. As of last Christmas he was still driving on that tire, with no repair having been done (nor had he fixed the tranny that was missing 2nd and 3rd gears).
In an emergency, fix-a-flat beats changing a tire on a highway.
I’ve repaired tires that had fix-a-flat in them. Not too bad. We would never plug a tire, we considered that second rate. We would remove all the weights from the rim, remove the tire from the rim, buff the spot that had the hole in it, and apply a new patch. Rebalance the tire, and re-install. Of course that wasn’t exactly during the “time is money” days. It was more of the “This is the pickup that I use on my farm, and I better not have to come back in to town to get this damn tire patched again” days. We didn’t want repeat customers for tire repairs. We even fixed semi flats too. Truckers wouldn’t allow us to use plugs, always said they weren’t reliable enough. You don’t know exciting until you need to get a semi’s tubless tire to ‘bite’ the rim (expand to the sides of the rim so it will begin taking air) and you do by using starter fluid sprayed inside the tire, and as soon as you light it, you hit the air. The starter fluid expands the sides of the tires just as you start putting air into it. We only had to do that once, thank God. People have gotten killed for less. Ahh yes, growing up in a farm town in Oklahoma… we had our own type of excitement.